As expected, U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan approved a price-fixing settlement September 6 between the Justice Department and three publishers of e-books Hachette Book Group, Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins. Cote signed off on the deal over the objections of Apple Inc., which has been accused by both the DOJ and class action lawyers of conspiring with publishers to jack up e-book prices.
The DOJ sued Apple and five leading e-book publishers in April, alleging that they violated the Sherman Act in 2010 when they switched from a so-called wholesale model for e-book sales (in which retailers, like Apple and Amazon Inc., sold at whatever price they wanted) to an agency model, in which retailers agree to sell for a fixed price set by publishers in exchange for a fixed cut of the profits. Since that shift, e-books prices have jumped an estimated 40 percent.
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